Kingdom of Days: February 26

New for 2024: Review for 2014

1966: The Castiles play the Matawan-Keyport Roller Drome in Matawan, serving as the backup band for The Exciters. Bruce will one day witness a young Patti Scialfa cover The Exciters’ biggest hit, “Tell Him,” and remember it as the night he first fell in love with Patti’s voice.

1971: Bruce jams at an open mic night at The Upstage in Asbury Park.

1972: The Bruce Springsteen Band plays show number eight of nine at The Back Door in Richmond.

1973: Bruce plays his first west coast show since signing his record deal at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, opening for Pan. When his guitar amp dies a couple of songs in, Bruce finishes the rest of his set on piano.

1977: Bruce and the E Street Band play the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.

1981: The River Tour moves on to the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.

1985: Bruce wins the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance (Male) for “Dancing in the Dark.” (He is also nominated for Record of the Year (for “Dancing in the Dark” and Album of the Year (for Born in the U.S.A.) but loses to Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down respectively.) Bruce attends the ceremony with his mother and future-first-wife Julianne Phillips. The camera catches Bruce and Juli several times during the show.

1987: Bruce makes the cover of Rolling Stone and MTV unveils the winners of Rolling Stone Magazine’s 1986 Reader’s Poll–and in a year in which he did not tour and released no studio albums, Bruce still wins Artist of the Year, Best Live Performer, and Sexiest Male. Jon Bon Jovi is not impressed.

1996: Bruce’s solo acoustic tour moves on to Amsterdam. The acoustic/percussive arrangement of “The Promised Land” makes its debut and will close the show for the rest of the tour. This show also features the tour debut of “Bobby Jean.”

1997: Bruce wins the Best Contemporary Folk Album Grammy Award for The Ghost of Tom Joad but loses his Best Male Rock Vocal Performance nomination for “Dead Man Walkin’” to Beck’s “Where It’s At.” Pete Seeger introduces Bruce’s performance of his Grammy-winning album’s title track below.

1999: Bruce stops by Late Night With Conan O’Brien to collect Max for the upcoming Reunion Tour and performs a fun “Working on the Highway” with The Max Weinberg 7.

2008: Bruce and the band rehearse for the next leg of the Magic Tour at Convention Hall in Asbury Park.

2014: The E Street Band wraps up their Australian tour in Brisbane with surprises galore: the show opens with a fantastic cover of “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees, featuring a string section. The strings came back later in the show for a rare outing of “New York City Serenade” at the end of a Wild & Innocent full album performance. Eddie Vedder joins the band in the encores for “Highway to Hell.”